Transdisciplinary research in technology enhanced/networked learning practices
Symposium Organiser: Gale Parchoma, Lancaster University
Introduction
This symposium addresses the conference theme, theories and methodologies for research in networked learning, through exploring transdisciplinary research in the context of technology enhanced/networked learning (TEL/NL) practices across diverse geographical and disciplinary settings. For the purposes of this symposium, transdisciplinarity is distinguished from cross-, multi-, inter-, and post-disciplinarity via its combined recognition of sustained organising epistemological structures of disciplines, potential for disciplinary reorientation through dialogue, and focus on researching practices. Networked learning is distinguished from TEL by its constructionist underpinnings, its relational perspective on linkages among tutors, learners, and learning resources, and its "participative and democratic values" (Hodgson & Reynolds, 2005, p.11). The more generalist term, TEL, is defined by its accommodation of a broader range of ontological, epistemological, and pedagogical perspectives (Parchoma, 2011).
Contested disciplinarity in international doctoral supervision
Gale Parchoma, Lancaster University, Jeffrey M. Keefer, New York University
Preliminary results of a grounded-theory informed study of fourteen international doctoral supervisors' experiences in dealing with interdisciplinary issues in their supervisory practices are reported in this paper. All participants in this study had supervised or were in the process supervising interdisciplinary doctoral theses with interests in the educational research, technology enhanced learning, and/or networked learning. All had some experience with using technologies to support supervision at a distance. Where the full study examined a series of five questions on supervisory experiences, insights, and uses of technology, this paper reports only a subset of data associated with interdisciplinary experiences, insights, and challenges. Doctoral programmes with foci in the fields of educational research, technology enhanced and networked learning often to include academic staff and doctoral candidates from a fairly wide range of originating disciplines. Expanding technological support for part-time, distance, flexible access to doctoral programmes can bring together international groups of tutors and learners. Increasing enrolment and student diversity are sometimes leading to looser ties between supervisory expertise and thesis topics. The field has been described as inherently multi- (Conole & Oliver, 2002), inter- (Parchoma, 2011), and even trans-disciplinary (Becher & Trowler, 2001), thus raising questions on whether these descriptions are substantively different or whether a closer examination of the terms themselves can clarify discussions. We posit an in-progress conceptual framework for examining perspectives on disciplinarity and report supervisory challenges as linked to supporting supervisees to overcome domain knowledge gaps and to develop methodological expertise in this evolving field. We argue that our findings support a view of the field that extends beyond a multidisciplinary mosaic of research on the same area of interest, but from different mono-disciplinary angles to a more cooperative endeavour that involves interdisciplinary boundary crossings. Early findings from this study suggest that efforts to find a shared theoretical underpinning for the field face a series of challenges. However, the coming together of constituent technological, educational, and knowledge domains in international TEL/NL research and practice necessitate collaborative efforts reciprocal interdependence among contributors. Thus the nature of the TEL/NL field provides fertile transdisciplinary ground for represented disciplines to affect and potentially be reoriented by others.
Keywords
Inter-, trans-, multi-, cross- and post-disciplinarity, international doctoral supervision.
Stage on the page: trying out the metaphor of Japanese Noh and Kabuki theatre as a way to explore text based activities in a Virtual Learning Environment
Hilary Thomas, Lancaster University
My research challenge is to find a way to understand relationships mediated through a text based Virtual Learning Environment for a distance learning Masters programme in Creative Writing, and to understand in what way these relationships support - or don't support - the development of those students towards their learning goals. In my research I combine concepts and approaches that are rooted in Sociology, Psychology and Literary Theory/Creative Writing.
The focus of this paper is based in work in progress on ways of thinking about those online relationships and how as a researcher to observe and understand them. I have harnessed the use of a metaphor of Japanese Kabuki and Noh theatres to help me structure my thinking and to play with ideas drawn from the different disciplines with which I approach my research. My metaphor is built on that of Goffman (1969), with performance and stage serving as a way to understand the presentation of self. My refinement of Goffman's metaphor allows me to explore the issues associated with self presentation in this asynchronous online environment where interaction is apparently more measured and controlled. As with Goffman there are criticisms to be made of the dramaturgical analogy concerning how much conscious control there is of behaviour, but these criticisms become integral to my exploration of this environment, throwing up questions about communication and what it is to perform. My attention turns to the audience. In my research of this online environment I see myself as part of the audience. I use the metaphor to explore the role of a researcher in this context, highlighting issues of ontology and epistemology that colour how I regard 'the show'. However, in pursuing an approach informed by grounded theory and from a 'relational psychoanalytic' stance, I find myself shifting position in the dramaturgical analogy. I recognise my interpretations shaping and influencing the way I collect and understand data but I also recognise that I am instrumental in generating some of that data through the relationships between me and my interviewees. I need to regard not only my own responses and interpretations as part of my research data, but also to observe the process of intersubjectivity between me and my research participants. In turn I need also to consider the process of intersubjectivity between me and my own audience, you the reader.
Keywords
Text-mediated relationships in distance learning, metaphor for understanding, methodologies for research, intersubjectivity, role of researcher, creative writing. transdisciplinarity
Content and Language Integrated Learning: Shifting Boundaries and Terrain Mapping
Moira Hunter, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Malaquais, Gale Parchoma, Lancaster University
European policies mandate encouraging plurilingualism in a digitally enhanced world. This mandate is placing increased demands on higher educational practitioners and institutions to prepare today’s learners with new linguistic skills. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) policy appears to resonate strongly with European aspirations and goals of educating citizens and promoting lingual diversity, pluriculturism, and mobility within the European Union. Whilst offering a potential solution through the interweaving of content and language in a dual-focused educational approach, CLIL is at risk of becoming a ‘buzz word’ without evidence-based research on emerging CLIL practices. This paper suggests a framework for practice-based research in the initial steps of CLIL implementation into HE curriculum and considers expansive learning theory as a theoretical and analytical framework to advance knowledge creation. The deliberate construction of a transciplinary networked learning community is advanced as the outcome and vehicle as the first initiative for CLIL implementation. The partnering and convergence of the knowledge expertise of language experts and subject experts in collaborative reflective practice enhances networked learning within and beyond the institutional boundaries, professional development and learner multiliteracies, including languages, culture, content and digital media. The context for this study is within tertiary architectural education in France where students study architecture in the first language, French, and Language and Communication Skills in the additional language of English as a separate discipline. This lack of convergence appears at odds with the emerging trend and evolution of transdisiplinarity in architectural education and practice where academia and associated professions of architecture, design and engineering increasingly teach, practice and research collaboratively. This desk-based research first examines the significance of CLIL in the European context, its variants, along with the challenges and drawbacks in crossing disciplinary boundaries. The implications for language and disciplinary practitioners and their role are discussed. Transdisciplinary collaborative work, teaching and learning can bridge language and knowledge barriers between the different disciplines in and through the fusion of language learning of, for, and through the languages of architectural practice and content, leading to innovation in curriculum development. Relational agency, in other words calling on the capacity of individuals to jointly work and learn with other practitioners, pedagogies, theories and resources distributed within institutional settings, given that a supportive learning community is possible, can lead to enhanced professional agency, in other words the capacity to act effectively informed by appropriate professional knowledge.. This paper concludes that further research is needed on relational agency within collective activities, such as networked learning communities to advance CLIL implementation.
Keywords
Language learning, Content and language integrated learning (CLIL), learning community
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